Music world happenings; Shebeen pulls the music plug; hokey-pokey's comeback? and more buzz.

by Beth Lisick, special to SF Gate

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, September 19, 2001

The local music scene has been an extremely positive force this week, with discussion boards turning into hotbeds of vigil, blood donation and political-opinion info. Fans have continued going out to see live shows, both to escape their televisions and to find healing in the music and the community that surrounds it.

Last Friday's Zen Guerilla show at the Bottom of the Hill and Saturday's Sleepytime Gorilla Museum concert at the Justice League were both near sellouts. Unfortunately, many other acts were forced to cancel gigs, such as the highly anticipated Loretta Lynn show at Bimbo's and the Joe Lovano Octet at Yoshi's. Beulah, whose new record, The Coast Is Never Clear, was released on the day of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, was supposed to celebrate with an Amoeba in-store, but the event was canceled that day for obvious reasons. Nick Cave, whose September 21 Warfield date sold out so quickly that a second show had been added for the 22nd, has postponed these dates and his North American tour indefinitely.

New York's annual CMJ Music Marathon, which was scheduled for last weekend, has now been postponed to October 10-13. Some local bands like Beulah and the Court and Spark will now be unable to attend the festival due to previously scheduled tour dates.

Just keep going out to those shows, or disappear to the movies -- like Chris Isaak, who was seen last Tuesday, taking in a showing of "Brother" at the Four Star.

Singer/songwriter Garth Steel Klippert and former Doc's Clock bartender Brooke Dempsey are the happy new parents of Arabella Ruth Dempsey Klippert, born September 16 at 5:48 am. I got word last week that Shebeen, the music venue occupying the site of the former CoCo Club, has decided to pull the plug on its live music as of October 1. Didn't Shebeen just start doing shows only two months ago? From what I've heard, the club didn't think it was bringing in enough of an audience. It's too bad, because it certainly takes longer than two months for a club to start building a decent crowd.

According to bands who had played the room, the owners were very generous in compensating them, but some felt a lot of pressure to keep their volume low. Seeing that the CoCo Club's scene had been thwarted by noise complaints, the club had plenty of reason to be sensitive to that issue and therefore had concentrated on booking jazz and acoustic acts. As we know, jazz can get pretty damn loud (the band Crater, with Scott Amendola and Nels Cline, was asked to turn down) and there are also a lot of rock acts who play quietly and sing in whispers. With such restrictions placed on Shebeen from the start, maybe live music wouldn't have flourished, no matter how long the club gave it to take hold.

In other venue news, it looks like Emmett Cadigan, the Portlite's booker, stage manager, soundperson and publicist, is retiring after three years of bringing music to the Oakland dive. This doesn't necessarily mean that live music at the Portlite will cease, however. Cadigan is talking to parties interested in taking over his duties, which also include a certain amount of diplomacy in dealing with the club's notoriously feisty management. (If you've ever been booted for leaning on the pool table or moving a barstool, you know of which I speak.) Think you can take it on? Call Emmett at (510) 531-5555. Won't those slavering Belle and Sebastian fans have wished they had decided to go in for some karaoke two weeks ago at the Mint? There they would have seen their heroes, along with some of the band's pals from Aislers Set, belting it out at the Market Street cover-song palace. Not being a huge fan of bumper stickers, even I enjoyed a recent sighting of one that read "Maybe the Hokey Pokey Is What It's All About." After last Sunday's Asylum Street Spankers show at the Makeout Room, there's reason to believe that just might be the case. After two rowdy sets by the popular all-acoustic ensemble from Austin, Texas, the group's burly singer/washboard player, Wammo, led the packed club in an extended version of the ancient and still groovy sing-along/dance-along hit.

I never thought I'd see the day that an entire SG nightclub audience was putting their left legs in (not to mention their nipples, uvulas and pancreases) and shaking them all about, but there it was. The Spankers closed out their encore with a song dedicated to all victims of last week's tragedy, a solemn version of "Amazing Grace," led by the octet's sole female member, the divine Christina Marrs. The MOR audience had no problem transitioning from doing the hokey-pokey to underscoring Marrs' soulful voice with a soft chorus of "ooh"s.